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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Monday, March 08, 2010 :::
My Congressman — for another few hours — has a radio show on which he made a statement about the ethics committee investigation into him. He is partially quoted by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
After dancing with a bridesmaid, Massa said, he returned to a table full of male staffers who he said had been drinking heavily.
"A staff member made an intonation that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid," Massa said. He responded by saying, "Well, what I really ought to be doing is CQfrakking you." He said the complaint came not from that staffer, but from another at the table. The "CQ" was added by the D&C for no apparent reason; they also provide a link to an audio file of the radio show. The file contains well over an hour of audio; the description of the event starts about 9:50 in.
I voted against Congressman Massa a year and a half ago, and I have no reason to believe I wouldn't do so again; we have a few points of agreement, but many more points of disagreement. He raised a new point of disagreement about seven or eight minutes into the audio clip: he says he deserves full responsibility for the ethics investigation. Assuming his description of the event is remotely accurate, I would support severe punishment for whoever filed the complaint against him.
If he had deliberately used the language he used in front of a television camera or a public crowd, or even used clinical language to express the same sentiments, I might support censure. In private, his behavior does not make him a hero of the republic. But you ought to be able to serve in Congress without turning in your membership card in the club of humanity, and a drunk bunch of guy friends ought to be able to talk to each other like a drunk bunch of guy friends without some whiny jackass making a (literal) federal case out of it, even if one of them happens to be a member of Congress.
UPDATE: Here is a transcript of a longer excerpt of Massa's story than the D&C ran.
UPDATE 2: There is, it increasingly appears, a lot more to this. Which doesn't mean the House leadership is playing straight.Labels: Eric Massa
::: posted by Steven at 12:03 AM
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